2010 Winkie Convention

The 2010 Winkie Convention was held July 23-25 at Asilomar CA. Robert Baum was the chair and the event was a rousing success despite new management at Asilomar and the absence of many dear friends due to commitments at San Diego Comic Con.

The 2010 Winkie Convention Program Book

Winkie Convention 2010 Newsletter Report

This is the newsletter written at the 2010 Winkie Convention, written by Laura Gjovaag.

Friday at Winkies

The Winkie convention started as usual with people slowing filling the courtyard in front of the Fred Farr Forum and greeting each other. When Margaret Koontz arrived she drafted a group of volunteers to assist in decorating the Forum, which was open because the staff was still cleaning up after the last group. Karyl Carlson also brought some decorations that went up over the fireplace. The flurry of activity inside the hall did not diminish the fun outside, as more people arrived and many friendships were renewed for another year.

Registration was a tiny bit late in setting up due to unforeseen issues with the new management of Asilomar. The new check-in time is not until 4pm, so everyone had to wait while Peter finagled the keys from management. Several volunteers took that extra time to put together everyone's registration packets with a pair of green glasses, the directory, and the history of Winkie Con. As each person registered they were given the packet, a copy of the fantastic Winkie Program Book, and a short lecture on the change in meal tickets (also due to the change in management).

After registration the group gathered for dinner in Crocker Dining Hall. The meal was a salad and rolls, followed by fish or pasta (served cafeteria style), then a strawberry crumble served with fresh fruit for dessert. During dinner, Bob Baum announced that not nobody not no how was getting into the evening program without green glasses.

After dinner, Freddy Fogarty led the group in a round of getting-to-know-you Bingo in the courtyard. For those unfamiliar with the game, it is a bingo sheet with each square describing people who you might find at the convention. For instance, a square might say, "Saw the MGM Movie before reading the Oz books" and you would hunt down the editor of the newsletter to sign that Square for you. The meet and greet was a great success, as everyone scooted around asking "When did you first attend a Winkie Convention?" and "Did you come from out of state to the convention last year?"

Once we settled into the Forum, the evening program launched with a rousing Show and Tell. Quite a few people got up to show off treasures or to tell about news that had happened in the last year of interest to Oz fans. It was a solid start to the evening.

After Show and Tell, Robert Baum insisted that everyone wear their green glasses and play along with a Buzz Word story. Each key character was given a statement or action or both to say as Bob read the story of Dorothy attempting to reach Winkie Con. The crowd was good, Clare Baum took pictures, and much fun was had by all.

Next came the green glasses contest. Six contestants came up and the hope was that the cheering of the crowd would result in a clear winner. However, everyone cheered so loudly for each contestant that Bob made an executive decision to award prizes solely by height! Aaron Almanza and Eric Gjovaag took 1st place, Karyl Carlson and Laura Gjovaag took second, and coming in shortest were Lynn Beltz and Susan Hall.

A short break allowed everyone to stretch their legs and look at the club books being offered for sale.

Atticus Ganaway started the after-break program with an amazing look into the life and work of Frank Kramer, the lost illustrator of Oz, who did illustrations for THE MAGICAL MIMICS IN OZ and THE SHAGGY MAN OF OZ. Although Atticus did not go into great detail about the lengths he went to in order to gather this information, the effort was clear in how much he was able to locate and bring to the attention of the audience.

After Atticus finished up with a short Q&A, Laura Gjovaag took the stage for a moment to announce that Eric Shanower and Skottie Young had won an Eisner for their adaptation of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, published by Marvel Comics. After the evening events, the pair went on to win a second Eisner for the same work, but that wasn't announced to the group at large until the next day.

Next up, Gita Morena and Robert Baum gave a presentation on what it is like to be a part of the Baum family, and how it affected them both growing up and as adults. The presentation itself was short, but the Q&A afterward went on for a pleasant length of time.

The evening program ended after everyone had run out of questions, and the group went to their respective rooms or room parties for a quiet night in Asilomar.

Saturday at Winkies

Saturday morning came gray and cloudy as usual for Asilomar. The breakfast bell rang just after 7:30am and the Winkies were directed to the same room as Friday evening. The food service has changed from previous years. Instead of servers asking if you wanted oatmeal or yogurt, you had to forage for yourself. Unfortunately, the dining rooms did not always have enough space for all the possible foods. To get a bowl of oatmeal you needed to go to the room next door or the main room. Still, the food was good. The main dish was french toast and scrambled eggs with fresh fruit.

After breakfast the Winkies gathered in the Forum courtyard for the Masquerade. This year we had only three entries. Karyl Carlson came as Queen Ann visiting the Emerald City. Susan Hall made for a very grumpy Ruggedo, demanding her magic belt from a strangely absent Dorothy and scowling at the balloons that various people attempted to convince her were big yellow eggs. And a strange new character was Eric Gjovaag as Ozzie McTavish, power hitter and center fielder of the Emerald City Green Sox, hoping that someone will write him into an Oz story. McTavish also boasted of defeating the Narnia Lions and the Wonderland White Wabbits in the championship, and explained that the Emerald City Green Sox are the only big league team in Oz. The Munchkin Minor League team produces a lot of shortstops.

Once the puns stopped, MC Lee Speth told everyone to put their votes into the traditional ballot box. Larry Hollister announced the start of the treasure hunt and set out instruction sheets. People began to hunt for the pieces immediately, including one found before he finished announcing the hunt.

The Quiz was announced and people headed to the Afterglow Living Room to tackle it. The Quizzard this year was Susan Hall, and the full quiz will be printed in an upcoming issue of the newsletter. There was a tie for 1st place, both getting 26 out of 30 questions correct.

An update from the getting-to-know-you Bingo game: Carrie Hedges was the first to get a single row and Bill Thompson gets the prize for filling in the entire sheet. You can see a PDF of the Bingo sheet at here.

During the morning events, the dealers' room opened for business with several vendors selling excellent Oz treasures.

After the quiz, Freddy Fogarty started the Returning to Oz collector's roundtable. This was a discussion of the movie RETURN TO OZ and the merchandise available related to it. The discussion was lively and educational, and everyone had a good time.

Lunch was next, either chicken or vegetable enchiladas and some soups. Discussion in the dining hall ranged across every topic in Oz and beyond. No deer were sighted from the dining room itself.

After lunch the auction preview was opened up by Bill Thompson, who registered members for the auction as everyone looked over the fine items up on the block this year. As the preview ended, Peter Hanff and Carrie Hedges took the stage for the business meeting. Oz Club President Carrie Hedges started off the business meeting with information about the national Oz Convention next year. Peter took over and asked who wanted to have a Winkie Convention next year, and pretty much every hand went up. Next year the convention will be July 8-10th. Peter went on to explain some of the ways the new management differs from what we are used to, which we hope he will write up for an article in a near future Winkie Newsletter. For the moment, though, Peter asks that people register as quickly as possible due to the new money requirements.

The auction ran briskly this year, with many great treasures ending up with new owners. The auction ended up making nearly $7,000 with only a small amount of consignments biting into the total. A first edition of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ went for $2,600.

As counter-programming to the auction, Margaret Koontz opened the Wizard's Workshop where people could work on various art efforts, including helping Karyl Carlson put together a copy of Dick Martin's Emerald City.

Dinner at Crocker Dining Hall was roast beef and mashed potatoes, and there were a number of excellently dressed up Winkies showing off their good looks and good taste.

After dinner the evening program started with the announcements of awards and prizes by Peter Hanff:

• The winner of the Masquerade was Susan Hall as Ruggedo.
• Nathan Hollister won the treasure hunt with 63 points. He will be in charge of the hunt next year. Kevin Thomas came in second with 51.5 points... the half point came from finding one of the pieces of last year's treasure hunt!
• The Quiz winners Hal Koontz and Eric Gjovaag were honored, and Eric stated that he will be next year's Quizzard. He intends to present a three-tiered quiz, with a quiz covering THE SEA FAIRIES for novice quiz-takers, a standard quiz, and a master's quiz.
• The Winkie Award was presented to this year's chairman, Robert Baum.

Up next were Frank and Maud Baum, who magically appeared in front of us as Robert and Clare Baum vanished. Frank told the enthralled crowd about his creation of the Oz books, along with all the various efforts at making a living he tried before writing, and even going back to meeting his wife and being worried about her mother. Near the end of the presentation, Maud told the crowd that Frank had planned to link the Oz books with a movie studio and toy line, beating Disney to the punch... if he had lived.

After a break, Peter Hanff presented a review of this year's theme book, THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ, going through the artwork page by page and retelling the story. A great many details of the artwork were revealed, including some very bits. Peter ended the tale with the news that Oz was cut off from the rest of the world, leading to a compelling moment of complete silence.

After another break Bob Baum took the microphone again to give a presentation by David Maxine on The Flying Girl. A virtual history of flying was given as we learned how Baum did his research and created the Flying Girl books. Some slight problems with the slides led to moments of gleeful giggling, and Bob's in-flight announcements got everyone grinning.

Once the Flying Girls had landed, the main party ended and Asilomar once more descended into a peaceful night.

Sunday at Winkies

Sunday morning was cold and cloudy, a comfort for those of us who have traveled from heat-striken areas to Winkies. Breakfast started at 7:30am in Crocker Dining Hall with the Winkies in the same room as all weekend, but the problem with oatmeal being in a different room had been sorted out by the staff and less foraging was required. The main dish was sausage, scrambled eggs, and potatoes.

After breakfast the program allowed for extra time for everyone to pack and prepare for their inevitable departures, so the Sunday program started at 10am in the Forum. The crowd was introduced to Scott Cummings, the Editor-in-Chief of THE BAUM BUGLE who gave a short presentation on the Bugle and plans for the future. He then opened the floor to questions or criticism and a good discussion was held on the history and future of the Club's magazine. There was also some discussion, with Peter Hanff standing up and commenting, about the state of the Club in general and its needs for the future.

Another short break ensued while Robert Baum, Peter Hanff, and Stan Sieler wrestled with an old-fashioned slide projector that Bob referred to as newfangled technology. Eventually a good picture was produced with the infernal machine, and Bob presented a collection of rare photos and postcards from Macatawa. For those not familiar with the word, Macatawa was a summer resort on Lake Michigan that the Baums stayed at for a few years. Most of the photos were from around the time that the Baums would have been there, and a little earlier.

The presentation ended shortly before the planned time, and a clean-up effort started with many popping balloons (big green and yellow eggs to Ruggedo) and the snagging of photos taken earlier in the convention.

A small core of folks stayed on to enjoy a final meal at Asilomar. Lunch was a little late in opening (actually after they rang the bell) and the Winkies were sent to a corner of the main hall to enjoy soup and BBQ pork with corn on the cob and potatoes au gratin. Then the sad good-byes as we all went to our respective planes, trains, buses, and automobiles.

This year's Winkies was a great success. Fun was had by all, and lots of information and research was shared and discussed. Asilomar, despite the change in management, was the same old beautiful conference grounds. The wildlife was mostly hiding this year, with not much in the way of deer sightings by most people... although a raccoon apparently visited the Forum courtyard on the first night, judging from the spilled garbage can. A tiny black mountain lion was spotted, although some insist that it was only a domestic cat and not the lion that the signs warn visitors to be wary of. The boardwalk was being repaired, and some areas of the Asilomar dunes were inaccessible. A couple of pieces of the treasure hunt were not recovered and may earn someone an extra half point next year if they are found then.

The program guide is astoundingly beautiful and will certainly be an Oz collector's item going for beaucoup bucks in 2050, so hold onto yours. The theme is THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ, and the book contains several articles on the subject. In addition, supplemental material for some of the presentations was printed in the book. A gallery of Frank Kramer artwork researched by Atticus Gannaway is one of the jewels of the book, reproducing many works by the artist that Oz fans are unlikely to have seen before. The ongoing history of the Winkie Convention written for this newsletter is also reprinted and given new life with photos from those early days. Excerpts from THE FLYING GIRL by L. Frank Baum and Walt Spouse's comic strip adaptation of THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ round out the book. Much Kudos to Hungry Tiger Press for this fantastic book.

As has been mentioned, and will be mentioned again in this newsletter, next year's convention will be held July 8-10th 2011 at Asilomar. Peter Hanff is hoping that people will be able to register early because of the new financial requirements imposed on Winkies by the new management of Asilomar. As soon as the registration form is available, a special issue of the newsletter will go out with a link to the PDF form so you can download, print, and send it in to Peter.

We're hoping to see more costumes and more children at next year's convention, so get busy! With the costumes, I mean. Your creativity and silliness are always in demand at Winkies. As for the quiz, the only shame is in not trying, so plan on taking whatever level of quiz most suits your style next year. The novice quiz will cover THE SEA FAIRIES, so get reading. The standard quiz will be on all 40 Oz books, and perhaps THE SEA FAIRIES as well. The masters quiz will be tough. You are eligible to take the masters quiz if you have won three or more Winkie quizzes in the past. And, as always, start saving up for the auction. If you have items to donate to the auction, contact Bill Thompson.

We hope to see everyone at the 2011 Winkie Convention, and we hope you will continue to subscribe to this newsletter as we start volume two in about a week. Questions, comments, opinions, or any sort of feedback at all can be sent to winkies@oogaboo.org. This has been a special supplemental edition of the Winkies Newsletter, I hope you enjoyed the coverage of the Winkie Convention.

Winkie Con 2009 Prizes and Awards

• The winner of the Masquerade was Susan Hall as Ruggedo.
• Nathan Hollister won the treasure hunt with 63 points. Kevin Thomas came in second with 51.5 points.
• The Quiz winners were Hal Koontz and Eric Gjovaag.
• The Winkie Award was presented to Robert Baum.

Links

• 2010 Winkies Images - Formatted in a gallery of thumbnails.
• The Winkie Convention 2010 Facebook Page